The 2011 Cable Show at McCormick Place
Y'all heard of this Oprah character?
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Seeing a listing for something called The Cable Show at Chicago’s big convention center, McCormick Place, immediately invokes images of grandeur. It’s got to be like network upfronts, with ultra-famous celebrity presenters, especially if major stars like Oprah, Kelsey Grammer, and Paris Hilton are going to be there, right? Actually going to The Cable Show, though, and is an entirely different story.
That’s not to say that The Cable Show was small potatoes or uninteresting. In fact, it was incredibly interesting, but in a whole different way than expected. There weren’t huge, showy presentations, though there were free chair massages. The Cable Show is about the industry and technology overall more than it’s about each individual show in a network’s programming. Plus, the cable industry is much bigger than the average person would really expect.
So, come along with The A.V. Club as we run down some of the more interesting and surprising things at The Cable Show. After all, it was about more than just Oprah.
But first, Oprah, who apparently drives her own car.
Oprah spoke at Thursday morning’s General Session. She was interviewed by Investigation Discovery (“The fastest growing cable network in America”) newswoman Paula Zahn about the OWN network, which has been quietly underperforming since its launch. Zahn got in a few hard-hitting questions, and Oprah was her usual self-absorbed preacher self, talking about driving down Chicago Avenue the previous day, the transition of Harpo here in town, as well as her new show on OWN starting this fall. Oprah’s Next Chapter, the show, will feature Winfrey interviewing whomever she actually thinks is interesting and wants to talk to, rather than random singers who are releasing records. She’s going for child-killer Susan Smith and a ready-to-confess O.J. Simpson, but she’ll probably end up with a whole bunch of conversations with Maya Angelou.
What Oprah did talk a lot about, though, was her goal for her network. She wants to appeal to a “world of people looking for hopefulness and inspiration,” to help people “paint their dreams,” and, instead of developing a channel, she wants to develop a space where “hearts can open, and people can be inspired to live life differently.” It’s hokey as hell, but the thing is, Oprah’s fans know she can do it—and so do ad-space buyers. Viewers know they can watch some program about Shania Twain and come away thinking, “Hey, maybe I should start singing again,” or that they should at least get on a treadmill and walk once in awhile, and that kind of stuff appeals to advertisers all the same. It’s aspirational—and inspirational—living, and Oprah’s the queen of it all, slow start be damned.
Inspiration’s big business.
OWN’s one thing, but Oprah’s not alone in looking to uplift a population. Religious and inspirational channels were in great abundance at the show, from Halogen for lefty twentysomethings like Ashton Kutcher, to GMC TV, which promises “uplifting entertainment.” All of the uber-religious stations were there, of course—EWTN anchored its booth with a giant crucifix, which was kind of an odd choice—but the message of spiritual uplift went far beyond just the Jesus-heavy options. The popularity of shows like The Biggest Loser and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition explains the whole idea of raising up an audience, no matter if it’s genuine or not. Of course, add in millions of “spiritual” families looking for wholesome programming, and inspiration becomes a total cash cow.
Speaking of programs, there are a lot of popular shows and channels the vast majority of the population knows absolutely nothing about.
Heard of TVG’s Nail Files? Celebrity contractor Amy Matthews? What about RL TV, RFD-TV, HRTV, or the Unemployment Channel? (“If you’re not working, you should be watching.”) Yeah, that’s kind of the point: No matter how pop-culturally savvy The A.V. Club’s readers—or editors, for that matter—might consider themselves, everyone still has blind spots.
With the expansion of cable’s proverbial dial toward infinity, there are, well, innumerable options for television programmers. Sean O’Neal does a great column about niche channels like Wealth TV—whose booth at the show featured a Lamborghini, a guy hand-rolling cigars, and 3-D tour of the Hearst mansion in California—for The A.V. Club, but even O’Neal hasn’t gotten to all of them yet. Take, for example, Veria, a kind of hippie-dippie channel about yoga and how to make a boyfriend stop eating meat. That’s right, Veria’s a whole channel, not just one show. Think about the time, effort, money, and manpower that running a channel actually requires—and that’s for something probably never even heard of by most people. Joke away about the Golf Channel, but, heck, that’s something most cable subscribers actually know they get. Veria, RL TV, HRTV, RFDN, and the Unemployment Channel, they don’t even register yet.
Variety’s the spice of cable.
That same mind-bending cable variation that produces all of those anonymous channels is also causing cable to boom. During Thursday’s general session, Comcast CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts (“the man who brought you the triple play”) gave a presentation that really seemed to shake up the whole convention. He dropped some serious consumer science on Comcast’s commitment to giving customers infinite choices. That has accounted for the dramatic uptick in shows available on demand and online, and it is also basically the future of the cable industry. Roberts introduced Comcast’s new cloud interface, which the company has already rolled out in Georgia but plans to expand to the rest of its customers as soon as possible.
It might sound like a dumb little thing, but this Comcast cloud technology could change how we watch TV. For instance, the company recently signed a deal with Facebook, meaning that on this new cloud cable box, customers will be able to see what programming their Facebook friends “like.” The remote will have letter search, so people who want to watch HBO but don’t know the channel’s numbers out of the more than 1000 channels Comcast offers, they can just type in “426,” like dialing letters on a phone, and the box will know they mean HBO. The box will be more intuitive, like a TiVo, suggesting programming viewers might like and letting people set favorite shows, actors, directors, or even sports teams. And the realm of what’s available to watch will get even bigger, too. Search for “Julia Roberts,” for example, and get movies she’s in that are airing then, movies airing in the future, movies on demand, and even that episode of Letterman she was on earlier this year. It’s a more comprehensive look at the television brain, and it’s kind of a big deal.
That kind of content amalgamation is keeping the cable industry constantly viable. The National Cable And Telecommunications Association, the group that runs The Cable Show, was founded in 1952 and, like all other industries, it has to constantly innovate in order to stay in business. If the majority of American people already have cable in their houses, what can the industry do then? That’s why the triple play was so significant in the cable industry: It found a way to make people switch their phone business to cable, and it built brand loyalty. Companies can push content onto cellular phones and networks—60 percent of people grab for their phone first thing in the morning and right before they go to bed—but the cellular network, 4G and all, is just never going to have the capabilities that tech-hungry consumers want. That’s where cable comes in, both as a technology and as a source for programming. In the past two years, more than half of all Americans have bought a new TV, and come hell or high water, Cable Show attendees are going to make sure everyone’s got theirs on, and they’ve got something new, exciting, and seemingly tailored just for them to watch.
SLIDESHOW: The Cable Show 2011
